HOPKINS COUNTY, KY (11/17/11)—Mark Brown, a dedicated servant of Jesus Christ, a Madisonville native, and a naturally talented songwriter, was nominated for the United States Association of Gospel Entertainers and Musicians’ (USAGEM’s) “2011 New Artist of the Year” award earlier this year and will be appearing in the 8th Annual USAGEM Awards this upcoming Saturday, November 19th.

To be held at Nashville’s historic Troubadour Theatre beginning at 3pm, the 8th Annual USAGEM Awards will include a variety of live performances by gospel music artists associated with the Nashville-based organization.

The event, which will be televised, will be hosted by the award-winning group, The Fox Brothers. The show itself will be filmed by Fresh Well Media and will be aired on the Family-Friendly Entertainment Network and other Christian television networks.

A total of nineteen awards will be presented in a broad cross section of categories including gospel entertainer, male and female artists, new artist, song, acoustic singer/songwriter, group, duo, musician, and comedian. Genre-specific awards will be presented to artists in Southern Gospel, Christian Country, Black Gospel, Bluegrass , and Contemporary Christian music.

Fellow artists competing alongside Madisonville native Mark Brown for the title of 2011 New Artist include Emily Carey, The Davis Family, David Smith, Paul Sparks, Allison Speer, and Sunday Edition. Each of the artists were selected from a pool of hundreds, if not thousands, of similar artists.

As Mark is a native and representative of our community, we at SurfKY News wish him the best of luck at the awards ceremony!